Data gifting anomaly

[Culabula]

Good morning,

Since joining EE in 2020 and adding two more SIMs to my « family » I’ve noticed the following conundrum. 

My rollover date is the second of each month. If I gift myself data at one minute past midnight I can enjoy 100GB+ to use and to share. If I have the misfortune to be already asleep and don’t perform this task until the morning, I typically have lost 10GB somehow and have only 90-93GB to add to my second account. 

Not only that, the two SIMs that need to have data gifted to them have only 250mb each, so there is the real risk that post-lockdown, they could run up quite a bill before I get round to gifting the data to them. 

Why the loss of 10GB during the night ? Am I really expected not to go asleep until after midnight to maximise my potential and avoid the risk of unwanted charges ? How can this situation be avoided apart from setting an alarm to wake me in the middle of the night ? It seems grossly unreasonable and unjustifiable. 

[Leanne_T]

Hi there @Culabula

Thanks for coming back to the community. 

What phone are you using? 

Are you connected to WiFi when this happens? 

Thanks 🙂

Leanne. 

[Culabula]

Hi, thanks for response. I’m not sure what difference the phone makes to this facility, which initially worked well but for several months now has offered me significantly less data to share if I do not jump on it immediately after midnight on rollover day. 

But to answer your question, the master SIM with unlimited data is in a 4G router. One satellite SIM is in my iPad while the other is in my son’s iPhone 8. 

During the night of the second of the month, both the iPad and iPhone are connected to wifi. The master SIM is responsible for the home wifi network.

Why, first thing in the morning I am only allowed roughly 92GB instead of the 104 I would get immediately after midnight is a mystery. 

[Leanne_T]

Hi @Culabula

Thanks for coming back to me. 

If you’re on a unlimited plan you can gift up to 100GB of data or 120GB if you’re on a 5G smart handset plan. This will be the first 100/120GB and any data usage will reduce your giftable allowance. 

If you have used data overnight and would like information on what could be using your data, please see our How much data am I using on EE? article.

Thanks.

Leanne.

[EssexBoyEE]

Its because your Unlimited Sim is in a Router that your losing Data Overnight.

So when your Allowance Refreshes you've got a fresh 100gb to Gift. If you delay Gifting for say 24 Hours and during that period your Router has used 14gb of your Unlimited Data Plan from the Refresh date, then you only have 86gb of Data left to Gift (100 - 14), or in other words if your Router uses over 100gb before you've got around to Gifting anything then your Gifting Allowance from your UL SIM will be zero.

In your case you may want to think about Gifting All of your Data to.the SIM that doesn't use much Data and then re gift from that one at a later date

[Culabula]

Hi yes, I see the logic of that. However, my point is that between the hours of midnight and say, 07:00, I couldn’t possibly be using over 10 gigs of data. There is no traffic at that hour. Besides, it didn’t do this initially - same conditions, same router. 

[Culabula]

Yep, am an old hand at this and for the life of me can’t fathom how from midnight to 07:00|08:00 each and every 2nd of the month, I manage to use 10 GB of data, while asleep. 

How come it didn’t happen during the initial months ? Why always 10 ? Why not 6 ? 15 ?

 Forewarned next month, I’ll keep an eye on it and use the phone from the 1st to the 2nd as a hotspot. It’s not the end of the world, as I can’t go through 80-90 gigs on my iPad these days while confined to barracks and on wifi . Am just curious.  

[EssexBoyEE]

It's always been that way on terms of Giftable Allowances, you must be using Traffic through the Router after Midnight in order for you to lose Data.

You could do two things to confirm the use, set the Data Usage Monitor in the Router to coincide with your Refresh time and date, or just switch the Router off on your next Refresh Date and see what happens.

[Culabula]

Some, certainly, but not 10GB. 

[EssexBoyEE]

Well I'm only trying to be helpful here, rather than disagree as to where your Data is being used or not. As said set up the Routers Usage to coincide with your Refresh Dates and go from there